Laugh
by MuchaLuchaAndMe
Summary: Life continues as always as the only 4 remainers try to make best of what they have, as 9 makes important discoveries in his young life, about love and friendship, and what it means to really, truly laugh.


"You know, 9, there are a lot of things in this world that'd be really easy to do." I frowned, glancing over at 7, who was nibbling on her own thumb like a child, neither frowning nor smiling. She was sitting next to me on that log we both were resting on, and just nibbled in silence, looking off at absolutely nothing. I had been just staring into space for the longest time as well with her, both of us just sitting there, relaxing- doing absolutely nothing. "Don't you think?"

"Excuse me?" She laughed. Her laugh was soft, sweet, and very smooth, but I'm pretty sure it was an insult. I couldn't help but crack a smile anyways, even if she was mocking my inability to get where she was coming from. "_What_? I mean… what's so easy to do?" She giggled some more and twisted her body to face mine, and I followed in this movement.

"Oh, y'know, stuff." I _think_ I was starting to get where she was coming from, but I still didn't quite understand. I titled my head to the side and squinted, which just forced another round of giggles out of her. "C'mon, don't make such a stupid face!"

"I can't help it! You're being confusing." She shoved me and I laughed at her playful attempt to make me lose my balance. "Oh, come on- at least give an example before assaulting me."

"Well…" She struggled to pucker her lips between the chuckles and smiles that were always cracking here and there, and the fact I just kept making stupider and stupider expression wasn't helping her either, "Like stealing something- you could do that easily, you know- or maybe dancing, or picking flowers."

"Well, if you think of it that way, everything is easy to do."

"Well, no, there are things that are hard to do- like… like killing someone."

"Why? How would _you_ know?" I grinned as I leaned over 7, and she struggled to contain her laughter, "Have you ever killed anyone before, 7?" She snorted and shoved me back to my spot with absolute force, covering her mouth as she began to break out into that same, smooth laughter she always had.

"No, I haven't!" She squealed, pressing her legs to her chest and turning all the way to face me, smiling just as much as I was.

"Are you suuuure?" I widened my eyes and pursed my lips, giving off another very retarded look- something that of a dog, who was hit one too many times on the head (If I had to give an example). I wasn't sure why she was laughing so hard, but all I could think about how I wanted to make her laugh some more, and this was the best way I could think of.

"Shaddup!" She screamed as she broke into even louder laughs as I joined in, both of us falling over in gut-wrenching pain, because we just couldn't stop this harmony of giggles. We kept at it for a while. I didn't know how long, and I didn't really care. I know it wasn't for too long as I know there is a point one must start to breathe again, but I enjoyed laughing with her. I enjoyed feeling like I had made her laugh. I still didn't get why she was laughing so much, but when she began to choke out her laughter with desperate gasps of air, I did too, and eventually we had just shut down to broken giggles or chuckles every now and again, as I laid back on this splintered log, only popping up my head to get a quick look at her.

"Seriously though," I asked as she rubbed her jaw, forcing that stiff grin to retreat back into a satisfied smile, only somewhat paying attention to me as I poured all of my attention onto her, "You gotta give me a better example than that."

"Well," She started as she scooted further from me and laid on her belly, leaving her face only a few inches apart from my feet. I recoiled my legs closer to my body to give her some breathing room, and she started nibbling on thumb again after I presented this gesture, a meek smile painted on her face, as she was probably thinking of what to say next. I was so curious as to what was on her mind at that moment, because her forehead seemed to dance with different emotions, and she only bit her thumb when she was nervous (But what could she be nervous about?)- I could see it on her lips as they flickered between a frown, and the most bashful smile I'd ever seen on her in a long while, "…Dancing and singing is real easy… and talking and laughing is easy too, and so is holding hands." I smiled. She was right about that- holding hands was about the most pleasurable easy thing you could do.

"And then kissin' is real easy too." Well that just made my heart just skip a beat. Had she really just said that? Propping myself up further to get a better look at her, she seemed serious, as if she hadn't said anything abnormal at all. But it was. It was _very_ abnormal to just list kissing as easy. It wasn't as if she had kissed anyone before, so how the heck could she list that as something 'easy'?

"Kissing? Really?" I muttered, feeling dumbfounded that she could even come to that conclusion, and she scowled.

"What? It is." She acted like some kind of expert- she had the look too. She even raised her head up and looked away from me, like those snobs in those old high school musicals, and stopped biting her thumb. That's what really got me.

"Oh, so you're the kissing expert now? What, have you been kissin' 3 and 4 when I wasn't lookin'? You know, I bet you and 5 were just always makin' out, weren't cha?" She started laughing again, and I couldn't lie, I was laughing a little too between my words.

"No, we weren't!" She complained through giggles, letting go of her forced snobbish demeanor and reduced herself to slapping my leg.

"Oh, yeah, I guess you're right- you and 1 were probably too busy kissing up a storm to be smooching with 5!"

"Shut up!" She screamed with bashful smile, sitting up, giggling like a fool- and I just kept on laughing with her.

"Mmm, I bet you've been kissin' me instead, in my sleep, huh?" I sat up on my knees and caught my breath, amazed by how happy she was right now- I wished she could always be this happy.

"No!" She squealed as she scrambled onto her knees as well, digging her fingers into the aging wood beneath us, paying no mind to the crackle the old pine made under our weight.

"Then why don't we?" I closed my eyes and puckered my lips, smacking loudly and making grotesque smooching sounds and she just laughed and laughed, "C'mon, give your little love-monkey some sugar!" I lunged at her and she screeched as she struggled to escape my reach, just barely getting caught in my grasp as I lost my balance and struggled to hold onto anything, dragging her along as I tumbled to the ground. She landed on top of me and we just roared with laughter, she was gripping my shoulder as I kept hold of the arm I grabbed to pull her down.

I didn't care if this looked weird, or awkward, as anyone would probably guess, because she was laughing, and I was laughing- we were just laughing together, and I knew that we would keep on laughing like this. That's all that mattered. I couldn't even see straight, and it hurt so much to keep this up, but I couldn't stop- I just couldn't. And I could feel that 7 couldn't stop either, even though she was wheezing between each ha-ha and hee-hee.

"I-I can't breathe!" She gasped as she rolled her body off of me and on her back, spreading her arms out wide to the side, and struggled with her giggles to the world.

"M-me neither," I wheezed, grabbing hold of her hand and squeezing tight, trying to put the pressure in my chest somewhere _other_ than my chest. "Tell me to st-stop laughing!"

"S-stop laughing!" She giggled, swinging her leg into mine.

"Ow!" I screamed, and she just laughed some more. And we just kept laughing and laughing, until we honest to god could not breathe, and felt as if we were going to die (Which I mentioned, which made us laugh some more), but then the laughter just died out. But, as much as I loved to laugh, and as much as I loved to laugh with 7, I didn't mind stopping- It's not as if I had a choice in the matter. I continued to hold her hand as the only thing we seemed to be focusing on was the clouds above us, and the breathless gasps that echoed on this quiet earth. This planet was pretty, in a weird way, even though I couldn't even see the plain 'ol sky because it was always shrouded in clouds- it still looked like some sort of painting that would have been made so many years ago. And I loved it. And you know what else? I loved the ground too, in all of its garbage littered glory. Sure, it was scary at times, and it seemed lonely, but it was ours, and I could see the beauty in all of it.

It was glorious.

We both laid there for so long, I had forgotten to keep count of the hours as they passed. Maybe it wasn't that long at all- it didn't feel too long. The world had grown silent- even our breath was still, like death had over take the two of us, as we lay here, doing nothing. It was only when I finally turned my head to the side to look at her, and then spoke, did we both brake out of that sleeplike trance.

"Were you actually serious?" 7 looked at me, her face was tired, and her eyes worn dry from all that energy wasted before. I doubted she even had the will to turn to face me like she did, by the way she just flopped her neck around, like a rubber chicken.

"About-" Her voice was soft and choked, and hard to make out. 7 coughed a few times, and then started again, "About what?" Much clearer.

"About kissing. Is it really easy?"

"Never kissed no one, but I would _think_ so. I could kiss you right now if I wanted." My stomach dropped and I think the butterflies decided to take a visit in my belly, as I felt my circuits overheat for a split second by the mere thought of the two of us actually kissing. I had never thought about it before, and never had expected to, but now with that idea implanted in my mind I realized our faces were awfully close, which made my heart rate increase exponentially, like someone who had too much coffee in one sitting.

"W-what do you mean?" I stuttered, releasing her hand and propping my upper body up on my elbows, still looking at her as she instead decided to sit up the full 90 degrees in reaction to my moving.

"I mean, I could kiss you right now if I wanted. It'd be really easy. A kiss is really simple thing to do." Urgh- the conversation was making me very anxious. I wasn't comfortable with the concept of my friend kissing me.

"Seriously?" I swallowed, and she… well, I didn't quite know how to name her expression. It was, like, this weird mix of bored and angry- but with more bored, than there was angry.

"Seriously."

"I don't believe you."

"9, all you have to do to kiss someone is press your lips against theirs for, like, a second or something. See? Easy." I grimaced. It couldn't be that simple- it shouldn't be that simple. Kisses were _romantic_- they were a sign of affection between two people, who cared for each other with a burning passion, and held a certain lust for the person their lips met with. A kiss was important- important things weren't easy. They couldn't be easy- it just didn't make any sense.

"So if it's so easy, why don't we just kiss all the time?" Why I asked that is what I should have been asking myself, and it was, and she was probably wondering the same thing, with that bored-angry face she had. "I mean, because we hold hands a lot, so why don't we kiss a lot?"

"Because, they're two completely different things, 9."

"No, they're not- they're both easy," 7 tightened her lips and her eyebrows gathered together, and created a small groove in the space between her eyes- she was watching me, trying to figure out where I was going here, "So let's kiss."

I looked at her. She looked at me. She saw where I was going now, and I could see by how that frown deepened she was appalled I would even suggest such a thing. But she also seemed to stiffen, and shake a little, like she was trying to do something but was tied to the spot. I could see her fingers bury into the dirt, more than likely jamming up in her joints. I would have to clean that for her later.

"You can't, can you?" I spouted, ready to end this awkward tension that filled the air, that was slowly choking me to death. She sighed, and flopped onto her back.

"Nope," She said to the sky, brushing her hand over her bare head, "Don't know why, though- the whole principle of it is pretty simple."

"Because," I said before laying back down as well, resting my head on my hands looking back to that beautiful sky full of peach colored clouds, "Kissin' is only easy if you want to be more then friends, y'know?"

"Well… what if you really want to kiss someone, but you still just want to stay friends?" She asked. I hadn't thought of that. I bit my lip and began to think, a small frown appearing, birthed by my frustration.

"Why would anyone want to stay just friends with someone they wanna kiss?" I wonder.

"Because what if something happens to them?" Huh. Hadn't thought of that. I twirled my fingers in the dirt, lost in thought.

"Well, I don't see how kissing that person would make losing them hurt anymore."

"Well, because then you have to finally admit to yourself that you like them if you kiss 'em, right? You know, that you like 'em more than 'just friends'?" She rolled over to her side, and I followed. Her eyes were wide, and her fabric reflected the light of the sun, but the red tint on her side was very faint, just faint enough so that she could have this weird, soft, airy glow to her. She was such a strange contrast to all the garbage surrounding us- it was all dark, and grey and dirty, but she was so white and untouched, and clean, and… well, although it may sound weird to say it just like this, but she was a very pretty person.

I felt uncomfortable being next to her, looking at her in this light.

"Well, yeah, duh." My voice was cracking, but she didn't seem to notice this and kept talking, which was good, because I didn't really feel like trying to explain why I croak so much when I get nervous, or even _why _I was nervous.

"Well if you never kiss them, you can always deny how you feel, right? Then if they go away, it don't hurt so much." I frowned, and she didn't seem to notice that either, which… made me wonder if she was seeing my small falters in expression, but was acting like she hadn't, because… she… um… I, uh, can't actually think of a reason as to why she would do that. Which makes it all the more weird.

"I guess that you're right," I mumbled, trying to gather what to think about this hypothetical question, and trying to figure what I should think about how 7 acted in general. I paused, not sure what to say anymore, and if what I was going to say next was going to be very, very retarded, "So… why'd you ever think that kissing was easy then?"

"Whaddya mean?" I shut my eyes for two seconds and took a deep breath, then released.

"Kissin' ain't easy if you love someone, because you don't want to lose that someone, right?"

"…Right." _Where is he going with this?_ she would think, as she bit her finger, and I would just lay there on my side, wondering what went through that mind of hers whenever she was biting that thumb. I wanted to know her inside and out, but I barely even knew her name. What a fool I was to be so curious. She wouldn't open up to her innermost private thoughts anyways.

"So, even if it looks easy on the outside, it's probably the most difficult thing ever on the inside." Yeah, that worked. It looks easy, but, you know, it's like a silent promise between two people, that their lives are to be shared with each other for as long as they can possibly share it- A promise that they loved each other.

"I don't know. I've never kissed anyone, and I actually plan on keeping it that way."

"Me too," I smiled. She smiled. So it was our own silent promise, between two friends- a pact between 'partners' in life. Our lips would never meet with each other, or any other being that walks this earth. It was a pact to never be broken, and to never be spoken of again, for it was our secret, and ours alone. "So… Dancing, singing… what else is easy?" I spoke as I flipped onto my stomach, flashing her a small grin.

"Well," She spoke with an airy voice, "There's running, and skipping."

"And watching the clouds?"

"Yeah, and digging-"

"Digging?" I laughed, and she followed suit,

"_Yes_, digging."

"What about coming up with stupid things that are easy?"

"Well you'd just take the prize for that!" She slapped my arm and made me laugh some more. If there was one thing I knew about 7 for sure, it was that she made me laugh- she would always be able to do that. And all through the day we were just talking amongst ourselves, thinking of things in life that were easy to do, or made us happy. Just talking and laughing until the sky grew dark, and the world grew quiet. I never wanted to leave this moment. She was my best friend- the closest I got. That's all I wanted her to be, and that's all she was, and all she would ever be.

And that was all I could ever wish for.


End file.
